Where Grass Is Greener
by bunny500
Summary: Artifacts of great power are in the hands of kids! Kurama and friends must go to China, staying with his cousin, Jack, to try and fix the delicate situation!
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer= Don't own, if I did… Why would I have to say this in hopes of not being pwned by lawyers? _

-=-=0-=-=

Jack breathed in deep, rolling over in his warm, squishy bed, feeling like never getting up again. But, in the end, he heaved a deep sigh, and forced himself into a sitting position, flipping his blankets off his lap. He gave a heavy groan as his feet fell onto the cold wood floor and the bruises littering his form ached from his movements.

He shuffled across the floor, rubbing his arms with his hands, and felt his too large pants drag on the ground. He soon reached his closet, and, opening it, pulled a black, ripped tee shirt and a pair of dark jeans out. He paused, looking down at his bare, bruised, scratched up chest, before exiting the room. He knew, that had his parents been home, they wouldn't bother asking about how he acquired the injuries.

He soon was in the bathroom, taking a cold shower. Too many close calls with Kimiko's flames and Omi's heated water attacks had made him appreciate the feeling of freezing water on his flesh. He was out quickly, and brushed his teeth before stepping into his outfit.

Down stairs he went, wondering what it was like to have a mother over the oven, but shaking away the thought, walked into the kitchen. He waltzed up to a cabinet to find it disappointingly empty of anything but a nutty-nut bar, which he nabbed and munched upon.

Distractedly, he glanced around the kitchen, passing his eyes over a bright pink note without his notice. After a moment, he froze, his mouth in a thin line. Only a few times before had his parents left him a note on the counter in that garish shade, and one of those times, it was to tell him that his old uncle Joe had died.

He slowly turned his head to lock his eyes on it, and, after a moment of contemplation, moved cautiously foreword. He swallowed down the bite of nut bar he had taken not a moment before, and then picked up the bright pink thing from the granite counter. He stopped breathing for a moment, closing his eyes, before deciding himself prepared, and reading.

Dear Jacky-kins, Your cousin, Shuichi, will be coming to stay over for a bit, So please pick him up at the airport at one on Monday, He' coming all the way from Japan! Love, Mom Ps. He'll be bringing a few friends over too Pps. I love you XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The bar of nutty-nut goodness slipped from his fingers, falling to the floor, as he stared, wide eyed, a few moments longer. He took a deep breath, fighting the urge to panic as he glanced at the mechanical calendar he had installed in the wall, just in case he was in need of the date. It_ was_ Monday. He then looked to the clock.

It was twelve.

The drive to the airport took two hours.

Jack fought not to hyperventilate as he came to the conclusion that he had to leave,_ now._ He dashed down to the basement, and dove into the car that he had recently created.

As he began to drive, he decided that, while his mom was and amazing cook and model (for those were her jobs that kept her away), she was not all that smart. He loved her, but she really didn't think things out very well. Now that he brought light on the fact, he realized that his dad, although he ran a business, didn't either.

-=-=-1-=-=-

Kurama sighed, wondering when it was that his cousin was going to arrive. They had been in the parking lot outside for quite a while now, and the two rowdier parts of the group were getting bored. It had not been a bad trip, despite Hiei's complaining so far, and he didn't want anything to ruin it this quickly.

Going to China had been something new and unexpected.

Koenma had said that there were some sort of ancient artifacts that could cause great danger for them and the world at large. Apparently, they were being wielded bye a group of_ children_, who sought to gain _more._ The whole thing, needless to say, had been something to worry about the whole way there.

He had sent them off as quickly as he could, giving them pendants that were meant to help them speak the language. He said that the situation was rather urgent, and if they couldn't retrieve the artifacts by some twist of fate, to at least make sure the children were well trained, and knew what they were dealing with.

A bright red color broke him out of his thoughts, and he noticed a ruffled looking boy who had that bright red on his head. He seemed jittery, upset, and completely unsure of what it was he was supposed to be doing. Kurama stood, waiting for the boy to take notice of him, in order to see if this was his cousin who happened to live here.

Eventually, the boy took a glance their way, and a victorious smile took his face at seeing them. He stepped around the car he had been behind, and walked towards them. At the sight of him, Kurama felt his eyes widen. There was something wrong here.

His cousin had on a black, ripped shirt on and some jeans, which was unsurprising. What did pose a problem was the state of his body.

One of his arms was almost completely covered in black and blue, with a large cut going down it, dark and red. His other arm was much the same with the bruises, but part of it was burned deeply and his wrist had cut going all around it. Now that his cousin was closer, he saw a fading bruise on his chin, and cuts on his cheek. Kurama bit back some large amount of worry, not sure at all how these injuries came to be.

His cousin soon stood before them with a sheepish smile on his face, and Kurama realized that he was shorter then Hiei.

"Umm… Sorry I'm late, I didn't even- well, I guess first, I should ask if any of you are named Shuichi."

Kurama blinked, surprised by the fact that he spoke Japanese, but then spoke himself.

"Yes, I am Shuichi," He nodded.

"Uh- Okay then, but… yeah, sorry I was late. Mom didn't bother to leave a note earlier, so I didn't _even know_ you were coming until it was twelve. Umm… I'm Jack. Who're you other guys?"

"I'm Kuwabara!"

Yusuke didn't look as enthusiastic as his teammate, but said, all the same, "I'm Yusuke."

Hiei made no move to speak, so Kuwabara did, "Short stuff over there is Hiei."

Jack observed them, and nodded his head when each name was said.

"We should all get in the car, I guess." He said plainly, and then began to weave his way through the parking lot, expecting them to follow.

They soon reached a sinister, black and red van that seemed to be designed to have a dark aura. Jack seemed to smile at being near it, and patted its hood before going to open the trunk. He helped them get their bags and trunks in it, and then got them all seated.

As he began to drive, they couldn't help but stare at him with odd looks on their faces, until he asked them what was wrong.

"Jack, aren't you a bit- I dunno- _young_ to be driving?" asked Yusuke. The boy looked hardly older then fourteen, after all.

"I _made_ this thing, I _think_ I can drive it." He said, sounding offended. They didn't reply, not wanting to bring up a sore subject. Jack had only just met them, and they didn't want to make a bad impression on the first day of knowing him.

When they had been in the car for what was sure to have been over and hour, Jack pulled into a grocery store parking lot. At their odd looks, he provided an explanation.

"I kinda ran out of food, and I thought that you _might_ want to help me pick out what you were going to be eating for however long you're going to be here."

So, they went in, looking with some curiosity at the foods that they didn't recognize. Jack's face slowly reddened, and he muttered "Sorry, this is a store with mostly American foods. I don't know what you guys want, and I'm not sure how to cook a lot of foreign dishes."

He nabbed an abandoned cart that happened to be nearby, and began dumping in ingredients and foods they were unused to.

"You guys can grab stuff you want to try or just things you already like,"

Yusuke and Kuwabara found all sorts of sweets that looked nice, so they began to pile things in. Kurama observed his cousins behavior with a carefully indifferent face, Hiei doing his best to ignore the entire ordeal.

Kurama watched his cousin's fluid motions, and how he treated his wounds like they weren't there. He watched how Jack seemed to almost give off an aura of fear, resentment (not aimed towards them), and awful disappointment. He saw the way the tiny redhead flinched ever so slightly at any swift movement made on their part.

All of these things were not leading to a pretty conclusion.

But Kurama held his judgment for a time when he had more information. He decided, looking at the tight expression on the edges of Yusuke's face, that he would confront his teammates on the situation later. He turned his gaze back to his cousin, much flying around in his brain.

They eventually made it to the checkout with a full cart and some now hungry boys. They pilled everything into the car; Jack once again took the wheel, and began the drive anew. This time around in the car, it took them only a half hour to reach their destination. They carried everything in, helping Jack get things put away, hiding their curiosity about the large house they were now in.

Jack hummed thoughtfully, before coming to some sort of conclusion, and speaking.

"I'll give you guys a tour of the house, and get your rooms sorted out, then go make dinner. Does that sound alright to you?"

The older boys agreed easily, finding this to be a good plan. They just hoped that they could eat soon, seeing as they hadn't for a while. So, Jack began showing them around.

He took care to show them where all the bathrooms were in the large building, as well as anything that he preferred left alone. They were shocked at the miniature arcade, game room, and vast back yard. Yusuke couldn't help his low whistle of admiration at the things Jack didn't even seem to care about.

"Man, you must have cool parents!"

Jack merely scoffed, before saying, "Dad just didn't want to deal with his little mistake; he made this house to keep me out of his way."

The group became silent at this chunk of uncomfortable information. After walking around for a few more minutes, Jack threw a look over his shoulder, full of irritation.

"It's not a touchy subject if that's what you're so quiet about. I've come to terms with not having ever been wanted." He growled, before adding in a murmur, "_Lord knows I've been told enough times."_

He soon led them upstairs, and showed them the bedrooms they were aloud to pick from and telling to figure out amongst themselves who would go where. With this, he left them, off to make them all some late lunch (that should really be called dinner, bye now it was a bit past five).

Hiei picked the plainest room with the wood floor, stiff bed, dark walls, and somewhat large window. Kurama's room had green walls, a cushy bed, and fluffy white carpet. Kuwabara's room was pale blue, had a big bed, and had a wood floor. Yusuke's pick had wooden walls, a wooden floor, and comfy bed.

They all ended up in Kurama's room after a while, and became somewhat serious. They had all come to the same conclusion.

"Something is really wrong with your cousin," Yusuke said plainly,

-=-2-=-

Jack, meanwhile, had begun to cook, pleased with his mad cooking skills. His Mother liked him enough to help him learn how to cook quite masterfully before she began to ignore him at the age of seven. Ever since he had turned seven, his relatives had completely ignored his existence, as he was big enough to take proper care of himself.

He sighed happily as he stirred the soup. It had been too long since he had cooked. He had been living on snack foods after he discovered shen-gong-wu, seeing as he didn't have enough time to make hid own food. But, since he now had a group of boys needing food, he saw no reason why he shouldn't cook for them.

-=-=3=-=-

_A/N: I hope this is all right; I did my best on it. If you didn't know, this is a rewrite of my messily written fic __Bright Grass__, but this time, I have a planned plot to follow, so I'm hoping that it'll be better this time around! =D_

_Thank you so much for reading this! If you should feel like it, I'd appreciate reviews =P _

_Again, Thank you!_


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the shows they are from, just the concepts and story written here. Danke schön for not suing : _

_-1-_

_"Something is really wrong with your cousin,_

"It's pretty goddamned obvious that someone's been attacking him." Yusuke said.

Kurama looked uncomfortable, even as he nodded.

Kuwabara gave him a studying glance, "What's wrong?" he asked.

"It's not bad to be worried," He said, "But jumping to conclusions right after meeting him probably isn't a good idea."

This time when Kuwabara looked at him, his face was oddly grim, "You've seen the way he acts too, don't pretend you haven't noticed."

Kurama's eyebrows furrowed together, "Kuwabara, I don't know what you mean."

Yusuke looked exasperated, "Kurama, he acts like we're going to hit him."

Kurama gave him a chagrined look.

"No, look," Yusuke interrupted as Kurama opened his mouth to speak, "We're _not going _to hit him, and you aren't either, but you've _seen_ how he flinches just as much as we have. Whenever we move too quickly, whenever we talk too loud, he reacts like he's trying to dodge a fist."

Kurama continued to look unsure, "We can't just decide to-"

He was cut off again, this time by Kuwabara.

"Kurama," he said, "He has bruises everywhere. He has cuts too, and it looks like someone purposely burned his wrist. That's what we can _see. _ He moves like he doesn't notice he's hurt at all." He said, "If this were infrequent, then he would be cringing in pain whenever he moved."

He leaned forward, "Someone_ is_ hurting your cousin. We don't know why. We don't know who, and frankly, we only met your cousin today, but I don't think this is something that we should just sit back and let happen either."

Kurama gave a nod of acknowledgement, and sighed.

"I know what you both mean, I've noticed it too. I'm not saying we should do nothing. I just think we should wait a while before interrogating him." He said finally, "If it looks like things are getting worse, then we'll ask him about it, alright?"

The other two nodded, looking appeased, and Hiei dipped his head forward in a shallow nod.

"For now, let's just focus on what we were sent here for."

-2-

Jack set the soup and mashed potatoes out on the table, and sent a Jack-Bot to go retrieve his visitors. He sat at the table, feeling pleased with the meal he had created, and thought about his cousin and his friends.

He hadn't seen his cousin in years, not since he was around five actually. He didn't remember Shuichi very well, only recalling when his cousin had called him a fool and thrown one of his toys at his head. He rubbed at his forehead with the memory, wincing. It didn't matter all that much though, and besides, Shuichi seemed pretty nice now that he was older. He certainly had friends to show for the years that Jack hadn't seen him.

Something loudly being crushed upstairs causing him to jump, hitting his knee on the table and rattling the dishes. He stood up hurriedly, hopping towards the stairs while trying to rub away the pain pulsing in his leg with his fingers.

"Everything alright up there?" He shouted up the stairs as he tried and failed to stumble up them.

"No, nothing!" Yelled Kuwabara quickly, while not really answering the question. That itself was enough to rouse Jack's suspicions.

Jack finally made it up to the top of the stairs, and blinked at Kuwabara blankly.

Kuwabara looked at him sheepishly, holding to door to the hall closet closed nervously. Jack looked at him with skepticism.

"What's in the closet?"

"Nothing!" Kuwabara lied badly.

Jack tried to look around Kuwabara, into the small opening of the closet door, which wouldn't completely close, but Kuwabara was big enough that he couldn't see inside. He approached Kuwabara and the mysterious closet, trying to be intimidating as he moved to stand at his full height.

He came to a standstill before the older teen, trying to ruffle him to the point where he would stand aside, but Kuwabara stood unflinchingly. Suddenly, Jack moved, shoving Kuwabara aside and pulling open the closet. By now everyone was peeking out from Kurama's door.

Jack blinked down at the contents of the closet, staring into it uncomprehendingly as Kuwabara moved to pull him away from the closet. Jack looked at him in confusion, stopping him in his tracks.

"Why did you destroy this Jack-Bot?" He asked, before suddenly narrowing his eyes, "Did it malfunction and attack you?"

"Wait," Yusuke said, "You know what that thing was?"

Jack blinked at them, a look of comprehension washing over his face.

"Oh," he said, "_Oh_. I didn't… tell you about my Jack-Bots, did I?"

They shook their heads (Well, not Hiei).

"Well," Jack began, "This was one of my robots, I sent him up to tell you guys that dinner is ready."

"You mean you made that thing?" Kuwabara asked, sounding mildly alarmed.

"Yes."

"Um… Sorry I broke it then." Kuwabara said, shaking his head slowly as he stared down at its crushed remains in the closet.

Jack sighed, but then nodded at the apology.

"Hey, did you say dinner's ready?" Yusuke called.

"Yes."

Yusuke and Kuwabara ran at the stairs, trying to beat the other to the food. Kurama shook his head after them, laughing lightly as he too headed downstairs, Hiei following close behind.

Jack stared after them for a moment before calling up another Jack-Bot to clean up his brethren from the closet and salvage his metallic corpse for parts that could be reused. He then went down into the kitchen, there he found the group eating already, talking companionably. He smiled and sat down with them to eat.

Later, when dinner was done and the dishes cleaned, Jack settled into bed and wondered if it felt so nice to have a family around the table as it did to have his cousin and his friends around. They had actually involved him in their conversations, and had treated him… normally? He wasn't sure, really, what it was like to be treated normally. He decided that he simply liked the way they treated him, and it didn't really matter if they treated him like a normal person or not. It was the best dinner he'd ever had, even if his mashed potatoes tasted a bit funny.

_-3-_

Jack woke with a yawn, rolling over to burrow into the blankets- and landed on his wooden floor on his bum for his efforts. Grumbling, he stood and threw the blanket that came with him back onto his bed tiredly. He stumbled over to his closet and snagged an outfit.

He shuffled into the hall, headed to the bathroom, and ran into someone. He looked up, blearily staring at Kuwabara, who was giving him an oddly concerned look. Deciding he didn't particularly care to deal with the bigger teen's antics, he walked around him and continued on his way.

Kuwabara stared after him, frowning lightly. He had seen all of the cuts, bruises, and burns all over Jack's chest- it was concerning, to say the least. He continued down the hall and plodded down the stairs to go talk to Yusuke.

_-4-_

When breakfast had been eaten and cleaned up, Kurama and his companions had headed off to take care of their own agenda.

Jack went down into his basement, getting to work on one of his new altercations to his Jack-Bots. He was working on some new methods for waterproofing them with the vague hope that it would protect them from Omi. After spending roughly an hour on his project, he slipped away to go repair some of his slightly damaged creations.

As he was walking to the small room in the back of his lab, where all of the slightly damaged robots were, he froze, sensing a presence he knew all too well saunter towards him from behind. Arms wrapped around his torso, and he forced himself to remain still at the touch.

"When did you get here?" He asked.

"Oh, a while ago…" A sultry voice murmured to him.

He broke away from his living restraint, and turned around swiftly.

"What do you want?"

"Hmm… Well, now that you ask, I could use a couple of new outfits; Chase absolutely _refuses_ to buy anything for me."

"You know what I mean, Wuya."

She slunk over to him, "Oh, is widdle Jack cranky?" she asked, resting a hand on his shoulder, her visage filled with amusement.

He smacked her hand away, snapping angrily, "Either tell me what you want, or _get out_!"

She lifted him suddenly by the front of his shirt, shaking him as she snarled, "_Don't _tell me what to do, weakling."

She tossed him on the floor with casual effort and Jack glared at her, one hand rubbing at his chest lightly, as he stood.

He stuck his tongue out at her back, only for her to turn around and look at him with disdain. He settled on pouting instead.

"I was just coming over to check on you, but you're obviously just being a brat, as usual."

He frowned harder, but refused to give a reply.

She paused for a moment, as if just noticing something. Her head tilted and she looked upwards, toward the house.

"It seems you have some… guests." She murmured.

He froze, feeling very nervous. He didn't like that tone of voice; it always meant she was about to do or say something unsavory.

"Hmm, you know, that red head looks almost as sexy as me," she hummed, "Maybe I should see if he wants to go out some time."

Jack's face went red as he glared at her, "You stay away from Shuichi!"

"Oh, is he yours?" She leered, looking hungry.

He spluttered angrily, "What? No! He's my cousin!"

"Then what's the problem?"

"J-just stay away from him and his friends, okay!"

"_Ahhh,"_ she grinned smugly, "Little Jacky just wants somebody to himself who actually pays attention to him, right?"

His face was completely red and he was shaking with anger.

"Well okay, big mean Wuya will leave your playmates alone." She laughed.

She turned away, rolling her hips with her usual air of seductiveness.

"But I will be telling Chase about your new 'friends'." She tossed in casually.

In the next moment, she was gone, leaving Jack alone and frustrated. All thoughts of repairing his Jack-Bots forgotten, he stomped out of the lab in a fit. He made some lunch in flustered rage; left it covered on the table, then stomped upstairs, throwing himself into his room angrily without eating.

_-5-_

When Kurama's group made it home, they were startled to find lunch on the table with no Jack. Kurama guessed that he must have eaten already and wandered off, so they all sat down and ate. Kuwabara was done first, and excused himself.

He wandered through the house looking for Jack, he was pretty sure Jack hadn't eaten, the food hadn't been touched before they got here- maybe Jack had eaten something else, but he didn't think Jack would bother with making something extra if he didn't like what he was cooking.

Kuwabara wandered upstairs and down the hall. He tried to open Jacks door only to find it locked- bingo.

"Jack?" He called.

No one answered.

"Jack, are you okay?" He asked.

"Go away," He vaguely heard Jack call from behind the door.

"Is something wrong?"

"Go away!" Jack yelled, muffled by the door.

"Fine, fine," Kuwabara said, "I'm goin'."

He heard a sniffle from the room as he started to walk away. He stopped, looking back worriedly, but heard the others calling for him downstairs.

"I'm comin'," He yelled down the stairs, giving one last look to Jack's room before he went.

_-6-_

After a while, Jack stepped out of his room, feeling tired and still a little bit angry. He went downstairs as quietly as he could manage, even knowing no one was in the house with him. He found the leftovers from lunch in the fridge and grabbed some.

He ate what he could and then cleaned up after himself, before going back downstairs. He worked for a little while on his bots. A while later he went back upstairs and made dinner. He was getting ready to set the table when he heard the shrill alarm telling him there was an active wu.

He ran downstairs, pulled on his heli-pack, and took a battalion of Jack-Bots, then left to face the monks hurriedly.

When Kurama and friends came back they couldn't find Jack anywhere. They didn't eat dinner.

_-7-_

_AN: __Hello guys, it's been a while I know, but I hope this chapter was worth it. Thank you for reading!_


	3. Chapter 3

_Jack sat curled up next to the door to his father's study, listening to the voices within._

_He heard his father's rough, tired voice emanating from the room, "God, I wish I had never come here to America."_

_He heard his mother's forlorn sigh, and heard her when she said, "You're not the only one." Jack cringed, hating how exhausted his mother seemed._

"_Hah! Like I'd believe that, you know I was the best thing that could've happened for your future."_

_His mother's voice was bitter, angry, when she spoke again, "You think I wanted to be married to you? You think I wanted to have a kid so young? I don't care how much money you have, you still screwed up my life just as badly as you did your own."_

_Jack listened to their bickering, wishing he could've never come home from Aunt Shiori's house in Japan. She was his dad's sister, even though she seemed way too nice for that to be possible. Shuichi, his cousin, might not like him very much, but being around him was better than being around his parents any day. At least Shuichi didn't yell at him, he only ignored him._

_Jack loved his Aunt Shiori. Aunt Shiori was at home every day, and she told him she loved him, and she read him stories when he went to bed. She even took him to the park and played with him. She cared about him. Jack wished she were his mom. Then he wouldn't be lonely._

_Jack didn't know if his mom actually liked him, even though she made him cookies and bought him toys. Maybe she did, but it was hard to tell when she got mad at his dad and they started yelling. Sometimes they just yelled about him. Jack didn't know what he'd done wrong, but he must have done something for them to be so angry with him and about him all the time. He just wished he could fix it._

_Every time he tried to show his dad he was good, he'd just get angry or pretend he wasn't there. When he tried to show his mom, she'd tell him he hadn't done anything wrong, and try to distract him so she could leave. Once he'd followed her, but he'd heard her crying, and he knew he must have done something wrong. He didn't follow her again after that._

_He knew she loved him (and he loved her, no matter how guilty he felt for making her sad all the time), because sometimes she said it, but he didn't know if she actually liked him. He was pretty sure she didn't want him, at least._

_He heard his mom's rising voice from inside the room, "Maybe you shouldn't have come here as an exchange student then! Or maybe you shouldn't have taken me to that stupid party! Don't blame everything on me."_

_His dad scoffed, "Well I'm not the one who got pregnant, now am I?"_

"_Well, you're certainly the one who couldn't keep it in his pants!"_

_He heard his mother slap his dad, and he ran away, scared she'd be mad if she found him next to the door again._

-==1==-

The spirit detectives headed back to their current home base, their investigations proving to be futile. However, when they arrived, it became quickly obvious that something was wrong. The front door stood agape, and when they entered the building, they could not find Jack anywhere. Kuwabara was unable to find his spirit within the house, and while there was also a distinct lack of malicious intent, there was still reason to worry.

Adding to their distress, the kitchen had been vacated in a manner that suggested that Jack hadn't been prepared to go, and had left in a hurry. The food was uncovered on the table, the cabinets were thrown open, and the remnants of half-cleaned dishes were in the sink. None of this promised anything good.

They didn't know how Jack had acquired his injuries- if he was willingly in some sort of dangerous group or if they had goaded him into going along with them. There was no telling what sort of trouble he could be involved in. Or what people were willing to cause him harm.

Their worry growing, they left the house in order to search out the surroundings for a hint at Jack's whereabouts. They soon found the trail he had left when he had hurriedly escaped the house.

-==2==-

Kurama burst through the foliage, his feet taking him swiftly after his cousin's scent. Behind him, he could sense his companions- Yusuke was keeping up fairly well, but Kuwabara was having a little bit of trouble. However, Kurama didn't know if they could afford to slow down at this point- they had no idea where Jack could be and what danger he could be in. Hiei was up ahead, moving swiftly through the branches above, presumably checking out whatever laid before them.

There were so many possibilities, and he didn't want to even think about them. Jack could be in any sort of horrible situation, and thinking about it would only serve to make Kurama more concerned. Trying to bite back his worry, he continued to follow his cousin's trail, and hoped that Jack would be all right.

-==3==-

Jack flew away for the wu swiftly, his propellers sputtering a little from his weight. A journey that would've otherwise been boring became a bit nerve wracking when it meant that he would have to face the Xiaolin losers at the end of it. He did his best to pretend that he didn't feel jittery at the idea of fighting them again, and continued his flight.

Eventually, he landed in a clearing in the woods, not all that far from the hill his home rested upon. He landed a bit roughly, his nervousness getting the best of him for a moment, before beginning his search for the shen gong wu. He dug his hands into bushes nearby, making sure to keep an eye out for a certain brightly colored flying lizard.

-==4==-

Jack couldn't believe it- he was going to lose again. He and Kimiko raced over dirt platforms on the way to a final platform, which held the wu. He had chosen to use his monkey staff, and while it was good for the racing, it sucked for the long range combat. Kimiko wasn't really using her own wu, and just kept sending fireballs his way. Sure, he could dodge them, but there was no way for him to counter attack. All of his Jack Bots had been destroyed at this point.

He focused on moving forward as fast as he could, choosing to ignore the attacks in favor of trying to get to the wu. That's when it happened. A ball of fire slammed directly into his abdomen, knocking him down. He got up, panting heavily as he fought off the nausea that accompanied the pain and the smell of charred cloth. He bit back a scream as a fire blasted against his arm.

Gasping, he finally managed to get on his feet. However, luck was not on his side- he only got up in time to see Kimiko's graceful fingers incase the wu. He had lost. He felt exhausted- the lack of food this morning and the energy that he had exerted since then making him dizzy. The burns were, of course, not helping the situation.

'God, please don't let me pass out in front of these losers.' he couldn't help but think.

Fighting to keep both his breathing and balance steady, he managed to yell, "I'll beat you next time!"

"Hah! You're barely standing." Kimiko called out playfully, her voice jovial, "You don't stand a chance, why don't you give up all ready?"

The banter that they always exchanged just didn't seem all that appealing at the moment, and Jack scowled at her, biting back his pain. Kimiko seemed to notice, her face suddenly melting into an expression of worry. "Jack? Jack are you okay?" she said. Jack hardly heard her, he was so tired and his body hurt so much. He didn't manage to say anything before he passed out.

-==5==-

Kurama breached the trees, his feet landing him solidly in the clearing. His heart beat frantically in his chest as his eyes found his younger cousin. Jack lay still on the forest floor, seemingly lifeless, and something caught in Kurama's throat- not quite anger, not quite worry. It was something else, some sort of unholy mix of the two, leaving him with a churning stomach and a burning throat. He wasn't close to his cousin in any way, but at the same time, Jack was just a child and something about him spread out in the grass, so utterly still- so vulnerable- set something off within him.

His eyes locked onto the girl running towards Jack, and he snarled.


End file.
